Human Exploration
Soyuz MS-03 begins expedition 50 by carrying NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy to the International Space Station. After launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, they will rendezvous to the station where they will remain for their 6 month stay.
The International Space Station programme is tied together by a complex set of legal, political and financial agreements between the sixteen nations involved in the project, governing ownership of the various components, rights to crewing and utilization, and responsibilities for crew rotation and resupply of the International Space Station. It was conceived in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan, during the Space Station Freedom project as it was originally called.
Nov 20, 1998 — ongoing
The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It was the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok and Voskhod programmes.
Nov 28, 1966 — ongoing
Orbital Attempt
#5,601
RFSA Mission
#260
Pad Launch
#473
Location Launch
#1,472
Designator
2016-070
Nov 17, 2016, 8:20 PM
1 update
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian crewed spaceflights are launched from Baikonur.
Timezone
Asia/Qyzylorda
Local Launch Time
Nov 18, 2016, 2:20 AM
Total Launches
1,564
Total Landings
0
Coordinates
45.9650, 63.3050
